


Just Like You Imagined

by hiza-chan (callunavulgari)



Series: Dark Month Collection [13]
Category: Final Fantasy XIII
Genre: F/M, Gen, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-06
Updated: 2012-04-06
Packaged: 2017-11-03 03:22:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/376567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callunavulgari/pseuds/hiza-chan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A what if scenario. What if the Faron sisters' roles had been switched?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Like You Imagined

**Author's Note:**

> Dark Month 2010, Day 17, midnightdiddle -- Snow/Serah, fighting through the circles of hell. This has nothing to do with Halloween and it isn't dark at all, but whatever. I tried.

Something is wrong here. Something is wrong. Snow is yelling at her, _why are you here? why? I told you I'd get your sister back, why did you come_ -  
  
Lightning is pale.  
  
She looks weak.  
  
There are so many things wrong with this script. Lightning weak and pale and _tired_ , her zipper torn, and her vest gaping to show the brand and the gaping red eye at the center. Her teeth clench in a faltering rhythm that matches her fist, knuckles going white around her saber as she tries to struggle to her feet.  
  
So many things wrong.  
  
Gasping, Lightning collapses.  
  
Her sister, always the strong one, weak and trembling on the ground. Behind them, someone shouts- a boy, barely twelve, a girl with bouncing orange curls, and another man with a friendly grin stretched across his lips. The girl looks familiar.  
  
Her hands flutter above Lightning, helpless, because what can she do? There are no wounds to mend, no blood to staunch, no bone to set. She is helpless and Lightning is in so much pain. Is it pain?  
  
Lightning's jaw is set, her voice rough and commanding when she gets enough breath to hiss, "Save Cocoon. Save it, Serah."  
  
Snow touches her sister's hand, once. "What? Sis, tell us. What do you need?"  
  
Lightning laughs, her face transformed. Laughing as she says, "Idiot, I just did."  
  
Serah remembers the day that they had gone out, out of the city, picked their own berries and laughed in the sun until they were both a ridiculous shade of pink, sure to peel. The way that Lightning had laughed about it with her, but taken no nonsense from her colleagues.  
  
The memory is fleeting, and quick to fade, because the laughter hasn't even faded from her eyes when-  
  
"Claire!--"  
  
.  
  
Lightning is lovely as a crystal, her lips twisted into a smile- her eyes crinkled with amusement or hysteria or whatever else she'd been feeling in those last few seconds. She is lovely, as if she is sleeping, and when Snow presses careful, tender kisses to the base of her skull she says, "Lightning. She isn't- she isn't" and he is quiet, grim when he says, "I know."  
  
There is a Pulse fal'Cie lurking just a few steps away, and maybe, just maybe she can convince it or- anything.  
  
.  
  
It doesn't give her sister back.  
  
The room erupts and images flash behind her eyes. _Focus_ and a brand, like Lightning's, on her arm. Around them, the world crumbles and falls to ice and crystal.  
  
.  
  
Ice clings to her fingertips, magic dripping from them, waiting for her to decide what she wants to do. The girl and the man are gone, off to a city of dreams. Snow sticks close to her, worried, and for more than a day they stick close to Lightning. Clinging and hopeful that maybe she'll wake. Snow even tries to dig her out, tears his fingers to shreds once the shovel breaks.  
  
She stops him. Bandages his fingers and kisses his brow; thanks him.  
  
The boy, Hope, is terrified. She doesn't quite know why he'd chosen to stick with them. Why he hadn't gone on with the others, but she doesn't mind the company. Worrying about Hope, it gives her something to do.  
  
On the second day, the ships descend and they are forced to flee.  
  
A girl watches them go, dark hair whipping in the wind- smirk across her lips.  
  
.  
  
Magic, it turns out, isn't quite so difficult. Snow, he's better without. With just his fists and the added power that the fal'cie has given him, but she prefers the curl of magic against her skin- the brush of sparks whipped past her cheek, the crackle of static and electricity that makes her eyes itch with tears.  
  
She doesn't quite know what they're looking for. _Save Cocoon_ is a difficult enough task, the range of possibilities endless. She can tell that Hope is lost too, and in a fit of concern for his well being, tugs him close to their sleeping bag at night- doesn't put up with his protests, just tucks him up between her and Snow and waits for the tension to drain from his shoulders. His breathing evens out, and she meets Snow's eyes over the kid's shoulder, giggles when he mouths "Didn't know we'd be having a kid this soon."  
  
Mouths back, "And out of wedlock? How shameless. Claire will be beside herself."  
  
They giggle themselves to sleep, and after that, the nights aren't quite so terrible.  
  
.  
  
Palumpolum. Revenge. It all sounds so petty. She doesn't quite agree, and yet, she can't get that last image of Lightning out of her head. Pale and weak; her tremulous request.  
  
Save it, she had said.  
  
But Palumpolum is far enough away, and perhaps she will have the chance to change their minds on the way there. She tucks Hope close to her side, laughs with him even as they're learning horrid things- things that Lightning would be able to handle so much better than her. How to kill the monsters they face, how to trap and snare creatures to eat, how to live with all of this over their heads.  
  
The Gapra Whitewood is pretty.  
  
Not long until Palumpolum.  
  
.  
  
The woman's name is Fang, and her smirk is just as cocky up close. But she helps them- tugs Serah out of the way of the bullets and shoves Hope onto the back of Snow's bike. She tells him to go, quick, split up and we'll lose them faster.  
  
Snow doesn't trust her, doesn't want to leave Serah with her, but-  
  
But she reminds Serah of Lightning, and perhaps it's silly, but that's enough reason for Serah.  
  
One last kiss, a quick glance, and Snow goes.  
  
Serah watches and when Fang gives her wrist a sharp tug, she follows.  
  
.  
  
_"I'm sorry, Serah."_  
  
A spell leaks free of her fingers and the phone shorts, spitting sparks in every which direction.  
  
Snow killed Hope's mother.  
  
Snow killed Hope's mother.  
  
Snow kille-  
  
Hope wants to kill Snow.  
  
.  
  
Later, Snow tells her that she's the reason Hope hesitated. All those nights that she'd tucked him close to them, the times when she'd told him silly little stories to drown out the screams of the wolves. His ribs are cracked and he can barely move, but he's alive.  
  
They're both alive. Both of them. And when Hope enters the room, it's only to change Snow's bandages.  
  
.  
  
Hope's father is a nice man, but he's too nice. She entertains herself with things that Lightning would say, if she were here. How she'd tell Hope to chin up and tell Snow to get a grip and how she'd probably punch Fang in the face.  
  
Windows shatter. The lights go out.  
  
She says, "Tie your father up, Hope" and doesn't even think until Snow gives her a strange look how much she sounds like her sister. How it was Lightning's voice in her head, insisting that he'd be safer that way.  
  
.  
  
Pulse is beautiful.  
  
.  
  
It's monsters less so.  
  
.  
  
Dysley is too good at replicating her sister. He has her smirks and her scowls perfect. Even her smile, rare as it is, is the correct shape. Snow calls, disbelievingly, "Sis?" and starts out across the ice towards her. There's something not quite right, and she doesn't need Hope's hand on hers to tell her that the creature before them probably isn't her sister.  
  
And it isn't, but it still leaves a sour taste in her mouth when her sister's form slithers forward and tries to slide her saber between Snow's ribs.  
  
Hope doesn't let go of her hand for hours, and she shakes and shivers and pretends that it's just the cold that has chilled her.  
  
.  
  
Dysley. Barthandelus. Orphan. Ragnarok.  
  
Being a Cie'th hurts. Nothing makes sense, but she feels- something- something- something-  
  
Vanille cowers and nothing makes sense.  
  
.  
  
They save both Cocoon and Pulse, though the price is high.  
  
The sun rises on a new world and Lightning is silhouetted against the horizon, hand in hand with a little boy.  
  
Lightning is unable to hide a smile when Snow launches himself at her, spins her in his arms before grinning and saying "Sis, you had us so _worried_." Lightning rolls her eyes and Hope is at Snow's side, introducing himself. Sahz has Dahj in the air too, clear laughter cutting across the field. And Fang and Vanille are in the sky, sleeping peacefully at last.  
  
Serah laughs.  
  
Brand new world.  
  
She thinks she'll like it.


End file.
